Ackster wasn't, by any means, experienced in the art of training or devising training regimens, especially in other worlds of swords and magic.
However, Ackster had two cards he could put to good use, despite his lacking expertise.
The knowledge he had as a transmigrator who had read the original story and the Nominus Card.
Since the original story centered around The Hero, Acskter didn't know every little detail there was to know about Millmeria. In fact, The Hero's story only covered less than a fraction of all of Millmeria's history, and Ackster felt he was bound to encounter things the original story hadn't even mentioned in passing.
But the original story had told the readers a great deal about The Hero's journey and growth. Even if it wasn't all-encompassing knowledge that Ackster could apply to himself since he and The Hero had different talents, potentials, and opportunities, Ackster could make deductions and work out a somewhat orderly way for himself to grow stronger.
And then, with his Nomi, Ackster could evaluate in real time his methods of training and see what was good and useful and what needed to change. It wouldn't be perfect. Far from it, in fact. But it would be enough to get Ackster started until he could find someone to help train him.
He had a candidate in mind, but that would probably have to come after the Sea God's Temple since they should be beyond the Central Isles. Ackster also probably wouldn't be able to meet them without the Sea God's Manual and the strength it would hopefully give him. Even then, it probably would only be enough to get a visit, not guarantee tutorship.
But that was a matter for the future.
At the moment, Ackster had to focus on his training, which would begin with pushing himself to his utmost limit in every aspect possible.
As he imagined what he was going to put himself through, Ackster almost began dreading the consequences of his choice. Only the thought of The Hero from the original story and his strength at the end, and the fact that Ackster would have to fight him, motivated Ackster to go through with his method.
After leaving the trail and walking while in deep thought for a while, Ackster stopped, and he gradually realized that he wasn't lost. He could quite easily feel that he would find his way back to the road if he tried. It could either be because of Strong Body or Keen Senses, but it didn't matter.
What mattered was that he didn't have to keep track of the directions by remembering in which cardinal direction the sun rose and whatnot. He just had to focus on training while gradually moving south through the forests, wilderness, and nature that he encountered on his journey.
It was a slight relief since he wouldn't have the freedom of mind to think about superficially unnecessary things like that while training. But it was like throwing a couple of ice cubes at a bonfire.
Before the bonfire of figurative dread could consume him, Ackster knelt down and opened his bag.
If there were one thing Ackster would absolutely need while he was sticking with his spartan training in the middle of nowhere, it would be a certain skill. He needed to acquire Iron Stomach so that he could eat almost anything whenever he got hungry.
Thankfully, it was a relatively easy skill to acquire. It mostly required an iron will and some persistence. But there was a way to get it even faster as long as one had a necessary prerequisite skill.
Poison Resistance.
With Poison Resistance, Ackster could eat things that would be dangerous to consume and force himself to acquire Iron Stomach even quicker.
And he had just the thing that would get him that skill at a record pace. He just had to be able to force himself to eat them.
Ackster looked into his bag. Unsurprisingly, the first thing he saw was the thing he had brought back along with the Doppelganger Slime.
He didn't even know what it was since it had been dark, and he hadn't been in the best of states when he brought it back. He also hadn't looked at it after bringing it back to his room since he was busy with the Doppelganger Slime while it lay inside his bag.
But now, looking at with the light of dawn aiding him, Ackster could confirm that he did not know what he had picked up on a whim. The most he could say was that it was a slime. But he had no idea what kind of slime it was.
It looked lethargic, and the slightly murky grey color wasn't something Ackster could pinpoint to a specific type of slime. But its shapelessness and sagginess did remind him of the Doppelganger Slime in its dormant state before it woke up and copied Ackster.
He had also found them in the same place, so it wouldn't be weird if the two were related somehow. But the slime in front of him clearly wasn't a Doppelganger Slime. If it were, it had to be a unique variant of an already rare variant of slime.
It could also be a failure. Since Doppelganger Slimes were mostly artificial, it wouldn't be weird if the creation process failed and something not-quite-a-Doppelganger Slime popped out.
Ackster held up the grey slime to the light and inspected it to see if he could find out anything about it based on how it reacted or felt to hold. But it felt like holding a big jellyfish. It was about the same as the Doppelganger Slime, and Ackster had learned nothing about his idle traveling companion.
Sighing, Ackster put aside the slime and fished out what he was really looking for, what would kickstart his journey to great strength and his spartan training.
He grabbed the nasty, stinky goblin fingers he had snapped and taken from the poison goblin's corpse.